


Face Like Thunder

by akempe



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Arizona Coyotes | Phoenix Coyotes, Edmonton Oilers, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-05-18 09:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 3,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14850458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akempe/pseuds/akempe
Summary: "Dylan, it's always gonna be you. No one can change my mind, not this organization, not this league, I love you."in which two hockey players deal with homophobic people in the league, long distance, and supportive friends.





	1. ONE

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: I did not write this book to force a relationship between Connor and Dylan. I wrote this to bring awareness to the LGBTQ+ side of the NHL. I chose these two because of the fact that they have been friends for a very very long time. Connor Mcdavid and Dylan Strome are NHL players for the Edmonton Oilers and the Arizona Coyotes. I, sadly, do not own Dylan nor Connor(I wish I did), I do not own the two organizations either.

The 2015 draft was one of the best things to happen to Dylan Strome and Connor McDavid. When Connor's name was called by the Edmonton Oilers, Dylan was insanely happy for him — his best friend was drafted first overall! He fought the urge to yell his name and instead smiled from ear to ear, not looking away from Connor. Although he had to go to media and press to talk about how he felt, Connor asked to watch the second and third pick in hopes of his love being chosen.

"With the third pick of the 2015 NHL Draft, the Arizona Coyotes select Dylan Strome of the Erie Otters." Connor tried his best to keep himself from kissing Dylan right then and there. He clapped his hands and Dylan got up on stage with a huge smile on his face which caused Connor to smile, too.

Connor was then escorted backstage and while speaking with Jack Eichel, Dylan walked into the room. Dylan looked up to Connor and in the moment the two made eye contact, it was as if everyone around them was gone and they were the last two people in that room. Connor attacked him with a hug and in Dylan's ear he whispered, "I'm so proud of you, baby."


	2. TWO

The two were separated a week later and sent to development camp, Connor was told that he would be playing in the NHL starting next year, but Dylan was told that the Coyotes organization was thinking of sending him down to Erie unless he could prove himself useful. Of course, the first person Connor told this to was Dylan, but Dylan didn't tell him the news about the Coyotes. Anytime he was around Connor, people appreciated him more or talked about him more, they praised him while Dylan was just 'the guy that went third in the draft.'

Although Dylan knew that it wasn't Connor's fault, he did get jealous, but he never told Connor this. This was Connor's time to shine and he didn't want to interfere.

Dylan  
hey baby, i miss you a lot. i'm glad that everything is going good up in edmonton. I'm gonna FaceTime you tonight if thats okay with you.

Connor  
hi love, I'm so so so sorry but we have the team bonding thing to do today, we'll FaceTime tomorrow though i promise!

Dylan was extremely disappointed, but he understood. Connor was in the spotlight now and who was he to deprive him of that? Little did Dylan know that the only bonding Connor would be doing that night was with him at a little restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona.

About an hour later Dylan decided to go exploring in Scottsdale a bit. He walked through countless of stores in the outdoor mall, he even watched a movie by himself then later got hit on by a girl and he simply told her that he was gay.

The girl just nodded her head then said, "I've always wanted a gay friend. My name is Alexandra." Just like that, Dylan made his first friend outside of the team. He learned that she was a native of Scottsdale and knew all the best places to go to so they waked to a small restaurant. The restaurant had an Italian look to it and Dylan automatically loved it, the place featured a red brick wall covered with a Renaissance looking painting on it. Dylan was mesmerized by the painting which gave Alex enough time to slip away.

Connor sat at the same restaurant in the corner booth, watching Dylan appreciate the details in the painting. A minute later Dylan turned around to see that Alex was nowhere to be found and he scoffed then the corner of his eyes caught Connor sitting in the booth. Dylan turned to face Connor fully and Connor smiled at him. Dylan walked up to the table and he immediately said, "you fucking bitch."

"I'm your bitch, though."


	3. THREE

Connor ended up staying the night, but was woken up by his phone buzzing. He opened his phone to see he got a text from Patrick Kane and he automatically knew it was something rude. He got out of bed and walked into the kitchen to make breakfast and surprise Dylan.

"Babe? What are you doing?" Connor hears Dylan say in his morning voice.

Connor sighs, "You weren't supposed to wake up, damn it." Dylan laughs and kisses Connor's cheek then grabs two plates and puts them out, Dylan hugs Connor from behind, not letting Connor move.

"No, Dylan, let me go." He says laughing, but Dylan shakes his head and hugs him even tighter. Connor tries his best to continue cooking the pancakes.

"Hey, Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor, aye dude, Connor, baby." Dylan says in hopes of annoying Connor.

He rolls his eyes while trying to flip a pancake, "What do you want?"

Dylan smiles even though he knows Connor can't see it, "I love you."

"Yeah, yeah, I love you. Please let go of me now so I don't burn these pancakes." Dylan lets him go and eats the pancakes that were ready. He opens his fridge and looks for food only realizing that he needed to go grocery shopping. Connor puts the food that was ready on the table and the two sit across from each other, eating.

Connor looks up at Dylan, watching him devour his food. How was he gonna tell this kid what people were saying about him without breaking his heart?


	4. FOUR

Dylan and Connor were cuddled together under a big, fluffy blanket and were watching a random movie they found on Netflix. Connor could tell that Dylan was interested in the movie, but all Connor could think about was the things he had overheard people say about their relationship. Connor was never the one to pay attention and take into account what people said about him, he had an "as long as I'm happy, I don't care" mentality. Dylan, on the other hand, hated when people talked behind his back, good or bad.

Connor knew that if he didn't tell Dylan and if he found out, Dylan wouldn't forgive him. He also knew that if he did tell him, then he would be dealing with a sad Dylan and seeing him sad breaks Connor's heart. He decided to tell Dylan because he knew that telling him couldn't be any worse than not telling him.

"Dylan, can we talk?" Connor asked slowly. Dylan stopped the movie and looked up at him hoping Connor wasn't breaking up with him. "There's been some talk, specifically on our relationship. One of our old teammates, Daniel, has been saying things about us. The guys don't really care, but I know you would. Alex told me what he's been saying and I just, I know how much you care about what people think about you."

Dylan sat up and furrowed his eyebrows, "Connor what are you saying?"

"The team doesn't really mind our relationship, they love it, actually, but Daniel called us fags and said that we deserve nothing except burning in hell."

Tears filled Dylan's eyes, "What?" he whispered as Connor hugged him tightly.

'How could someone hate me so much?' Dylan thought.


	5. FIVE

Dylan ended up falling asleep on the couch, but Connor couldn't take his mind off of how broken hearted Dylan was. He wanted to cheer him up once he woke up and even though he knew that would be hard he still tried coming up with a plan. Connor unlocked Dylan's phone and scrolled through his contacts then found Jakob Chychrun's number and called him from his own phone.

"Hey Chychrun, what're you up to?" He asked as he walked out of the living room.

"Hey, man. You didn't tell me you were in town. Me and Lawson were gonna go around Scottsdale tonight. Why, what's up?" Jakob asked and Connor could hear Lawson Crouse screaming at something in the background.

Before Connor could answer, he heard Jakob yell, "Crouse shut the fuck up! I'm on the phone."

Connor laughed then answered, "Dylan is really upset cause I told him what one of our Erie teammates said about us - uh- I mean Dylan."

Before he was able to finish Jakob cut him off and said, "I know you two are dating," and from the back Connor heard Lawson yell, "Is that Connor? Tell him that Dylan and him arent subtle at all."

Connor sighed then continued, "Now that the entire world knows, anyway, Dylan is really sad cause of that and I really wanna cheer him up, but I don't know how to and I don't know where anything is in Scottsdale so I need your help."

"Alright, I'll text you my address. Come over and we'll plan something."


	6. SIX

"Wait so let's go over this again." Lawson says looking at the list of things they had written down. "First, the four of us go to dinner, then you two go shopping around Scottsdale and you buy him a ton of shit and let's be real, he won't let you buy him anything. Okay then we meet you guys at that golfing place with Domi and Dvorak then we distract him so you could go buy ice cream cake cause apparently he lives for that shit and you bring it."

Connor nods his head, "Yeah that's basically it, shouldn't be to complicated."

Lawson's eyebrows furrow, "Connor, this shit is too complicated."

Jakob flicks him across the head, "It's not hard you idiot."

Connor laughs then a few minutes later he leaves and goes back to Dylan. He walks in to see Dylan awake, laying on the couch, playing with his hair.

Dylan looks up to Connor and Connor immediately says, "Get up and get changed, we're going somewhere."

Dylan rolls his eyes and shakes his head, "Ugh no Connor." Connor holds him by the arm and pulls him up then drags him to his room. Dylan sits on the bed, still not cooperating. Connor opens his closet and grabs a pair of joggers and a red t-shirt then throws it at Dylan, who fails at catching it.

"That's why you're not a goalie. Change, please." Dylan stands up and changes in a second then looks over at Connor who is holding a pair of shoes in his hands. Dylan puts them on then stands up, looking down to Connor. "Can you not look like you hate me, for once?"

Dylan flashes a smile at Connor, "That's better. Let's go."


	7. SEVEN

The day was coming to an end and Dylan was still looking around for Connor while Domi and Dvorak tried their hardest to distract him. Connor finally came back and he put the bigger cake on the table then held a small ice cream cake in his hands, standing behind Dylan. Domi pointed behind Dylan and Dylan turned around slowly to see Connor with the cake in his hand. Once he saw the cake, he started to laugh and shake his head.

Dylan walks up to Connor and kisses him on the cheek then takes the cake and starts eating it by himself. Connor being, well Connor, bought another cake that the rest of the boys split in between themselves. All of the guys sat on the chairs around the table and began eating the cake.

A brunette girl walked up to Dylan and said, "Hey, I lost my number. Is there any way I can get yours?"

Dylan looked around the place and all of the boys were sitting in shock, Connor had a smile on his face because he knew that no one could get his man.

Dylan chuckled and told the girl, "I'm gay."

She nodded her head then spoke up, "I've always wanted a gay friend." The two exchanged names and numbers then she walked away.

The two boyfriends sat next to one another and after convincing Dylan to stop hogging the cake, the two ate it together. They both finished eating at the same time and Dylan put his head on Connor's shoulder and whispered, "I love you so much. Thank you for everything."

"That girl's got nothing on me." Connor stated then smiled at Dylan.

He furrowed his eyebrows then whispered, "Well you have a dick, she doesn't."


	8. EIGHT

The week passed by in what felt like a minute and Connor and Dylan found themselves, once again, having to say goodbye to each other. Edmonton and Erie were on the opposite ends of the continent which would mean that they would hardly see each other unless somehow, someway, Dylan made it on the Arizona Coyotes roster.

After saying goodbye to each other, Dylan walked back into his home and sat on the couch. He turned on netflix and put on How To Get Away With Murder, but his mind was elsewhere. Although Connor and the boys tried their hardest to help him forget about what Daniel had said about them.

He knew that there were people out there that didn't support homosexuality and he was fine with that, as long as those peoples opinions didn't threaten his life. But when he heard Daniel, his teammate, say something like that he couldn't help but wonder if there was something wrong about him being gay.

So, Dylan sat on the couch missing an episode of one of his favorite shows, thinking about his life and how if he never came out, things would be better, people wouldn't hate him. Then he thought that if he never came out then him and Connor wouldn't be together, he wouldn't have his parter in crime with him. His mind kept shifting back to the negative thoughts so he laid down on the couch and wished he never came out, wished his friends didn't hate him, wished that the NHL, or any hockey organization for that matter, wasn't so homophobic.

He sat back up and grabbed his phone in an instant. He opened up twitter and composed a new tweet.

"This is me officially coming out. I'm Dylan Strome, and i'm gay."


	9. NINE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this takes place on twitter! sorry if it seems a bit messy.

@stromer19: This is me officially coming out. I'm Dylan Strome, and i'm gay.  
23,647 retweets 55,984 likes

@username: what the fuck  
@username2: YES OH MY GOD YES  
@username3: nasty ass bitch get the fuck outta hockey  
@Marner93: @username3 oh shut the fuck up. if he can deal with being discriminated his entire life, you can deal with him coming out as gay  
@username5: faggot  
@Raddy1998: im so proud of you dylan!!  
@username6: i called it  
@username7: this is disgusting  
@brinsky97: its about damn time  
@cmcdavid97: check your texts  
@username8: delete yourself  
@username9: I've lost all respect in you  
@username10: dont bring politics into hockey  
@AM34: @username10 being gay has nothing to do with politics.

connor mcdaddy  
dylan holy shit  
answer me   
omg   
dylan please  
im gonna come out if you dont answer me   
dylan im begging you  
oh my god  
okay  
alight  
i see how it is  
check twitter

@cmcdavid97: its time i do this too, I am bisexual.   
31,728 retweets 57,381 likes


	10. TEN

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is supposed to be perceived as an article on NHL.com

NHL.com

In a matter of one hour, two hockey players have officially come out with their real sexual orientation! Dylan Strome, the third draft pick of 2015, was the first to do so. The player tweeted to over 20 thousand people on the social media app and accumulated over 23 thousand retweets and 55 thousand likes. Many of his friends and current or ex teammates responded back to hate comments directed towards Strome. A couple minutes later, 2015 draft pick Connor McDavid tweeted to his followers about being bisexual. The two have always been close and people are starting to assume a relationship between the two boys, although they haven't confirmed anything.

Dylan Strome is now the first NHL Player to come out as gay, and we are definitely proud of him and Connor McDavid.

Thank you Dylan and Connor for helping the LGBTQ side of the hockey community to feel confident in themselves!


	11. ELEVEN

"Connor, what have I done? Why did I do this oh my god, everywhere I look is hate, Connor please please help me I don't know what to do." Dylan said over the phone, panting and pacing around his house in the middle of the night. Tears were threatening to fall out of his eyes and he was constantly running his fingers through his hair out of nervousness.

Connor on the other hand was calm, he never cared what others thought especially those hiding behind computer screens, "Dylan, breathe okay? Just listen to my voice alright? Dylan, it's always gonna be you. No one can change my mind, not this organization, not this league, I love you. I love you so fucking much, Dyl. Just breathe, babe, just breathe. I will always be here for you, no matter what. Don't do anything, fuck everyone else, fuck all of the people who are being homophobic assholes okay? I love you and I will love you forever and nothing will change that."

Dylan sat down on the couch and was able to breathe again when hearing Connor's soothing voice. Dylan put him on speaker and he laid down on his bed then put the phone next to him.

"Go to sleep, Dyl, I love you.”


	12. TWELVE

"Dylan!" Jakob Chychrun yelled out as he walked into Dylan's house. He slammed the door shut and walked to Dylan's room to see that he was completely knocked out. He tried shaking him a bit to wake him up, but it didn't work. Jakob texted Lawson Crouse, Max Domi and Brendan Perlini to come to Dylan's house to keep him company.

As soon as Lawson opened the door Dylan woke up and walked into the kitchen to see all of the boys sitting, staring at him. "Can I help you?" He said with an annoyed tone to his voice.

Max started smiling and yelled, "Good Morning!"

Dylan closed his eyes and rolled his eyes, "Shut the fuck up."

The rest of the guys started laughing and a minute later Dylan was sitting next to the guys around the table with a bowl of fruit loops in front of him. The boys were all silent, staring at him, waiting for him to say something about the tweet, even though they knew he was gay, but Dylan just sat there and ate his cereal in silence.

Dylan's phone started ringing and before he could pick it up, Lawson got it and answered the phone. "Dylan Strome's phone, how may I help you?"

The person on the line said something and Lawson rolled his eyes then handed Dylan the phone, "it's your lover."

Dylan quickly grabbed the phone, "Hi, baby."

"How are you feeling today?" Connor asked over the phone, still concerned.

"I'm good, these fuckers showed up today though and disturbed my peace." He said and the boys all put on innocent smiles so Dylan rolled his eyes and continued, "I'm fine though I mean no one has stopped talking about it so I'm just waiting for everyone to shut up."

They talked a bit more until Dylan realized that he had people over so they quickly said bye and he made his way back to the table.

Brendan Perlini was the first to speak, "Well? Are you gonna tell us or no?"

"There is nothing to tell. I decided to come out. That's it."

"Dylan, after you came out a good ten other hockey players came out and a couple were NHL players." Max stated and Dylan got confused.

"Wait wait who came out?" He asked, concerned and interested.

"Alec Martinez and Martin Jones came out, Dylan, that's a huge deal. They're both Stanley Cup champions." Domi explained and Dylan sat in his chair with a shocked expression on his face.

Dylan stood up, "This is because of me. I'm basically forcing them to come out. I didn't want this, I didn't want them to get into unnecessary shit over this."

The boys all rolled their eyes and Perlini was the first to speak, "Dylan, you didn't force them to be gay, you didn't force them to do anything, they could have easily stayed in the closet, they could have easily not said anything. They did so that people would know and so that they could accept themselves and not be stuck in another life. You helped them, Dylan."

Soon enough they stopped talking about it and decided to worry about other things than that. They began talking about the season to come, their girlfriends - a topic that Lawson stayed quiet about which made Dylan think about if he was apart of the LGBTQ community, so he decided he would ask him in private later- and they began to talk about how amazing the newest episode of Arrow was.

Before the boys left, Dylan texted Lawson to stay behind so that he could give him something, when in reality he was going to ask her if he was straight or not.

"Lawson, are you gay?"

Lawson looked around uncomfortably and sat down on the couch, "I don't know, Dylan."


	13. THIRTEEN

"Lawson, are you confused about your sexuality? For as long as I remember, you haven't had a girlfriend or even looked at any girl, but I could be wrong. Have you ever been attracted to girls?" Dylan asks, trying to help his friend out.

"Yeah, I have, but I've been attracted to guys too." Lawson states.

"So then maybe you're bisexual or even pansexual." Strome states to try to figure out what Lawson's sexuality really is.

"I don't know, Dylan, I'll figure it out eventually. I gotta go anyways." He says then stands up and starts to leave the house. They say 'goodbye' to each other and Lawson walks out the door then softly closes it behind him.

Dylan sighs and takes out his phone to call Connor. He waits for a few seconds, but Connor doesn't pick up. Dylan grabs his car keys and leaves the house. He drives down to a restaurant in Scottsdale, when he walks in a group of guys immediately spot him and a few of them start snickering and saying comments that Dylan didn't hear at first.

He got to his table and noticed two of the guys walking up to him so he immediately grabbed a menu and pretended to read it. Dylan still heard the footsteps of the boys and once it stopped he knew they were sitting across from him.

He put his menu down and smiled at the guys then said, "Hey, can I help you guys?"

"Yeah actually," one of them says, "we need your help." Dylan furrows his eyebrows and the guy continues, "How do we come out to our friends? Like me and him, yeah we're together and we don't know how to say it to the people we have been calling our friends since we were like five."

Dylan laughs, "Just say it. If they don't support you then they're not real friends."

The boys said thank you to Dylan and as they were about to leave Dylan spoke up, "Surprised you guys didnt want a picture or anything, thats why most people come up to me."

The boy who had been quiet the entire time said, "I mean we did, but we didn't want to seem rude."

Dylan starts laughing then calls them over to take a picture with them and once they take it, the boys walk away after saying thank you for the second time. Dylan sits back down at his table then spots Alex on the phone. She immediately recognizes him and her eyes go wide then she quickly turns off her phone and walks out without saying hello to Dylan.


End file.
